Homeschooling and the Power of Play
Homeschooling and the Power of Play
Play, in its varied forms, helps children develop many of the skills vital for academic and life success. It stretches the muscles of creativity and imagination. It provides opportunities to cooperate as well as to try on the leader's hat. It's a way to both gain and dispel energy. Play is indeed a child's most important work. Homeschooling's one-on-one attention to a child's academics is so time-efficient that the homeschooled child has bonus hours for additional play. Homeschoolers just need to "keep the calendar clear" and resist the temptation to fill that free time with too many structured activities.
This summer, like the last, we didn't fill every minute of our girls' time with enrichment courses from surfing to college prep. Instead, our girls, ages eight, eleven, and fourteen, enjoyed a summer reminiscent of the typical life of an American child in the 1950s. Our girls participated in many community-based programs, including the swim team and our library's ice cream socials, bake sales, and summer reading clubs. But most of their time was devoted to unstructured play. They built impressive neighborhood forts, ran through the sprinklers, made money with a neighborhood lemonade stand, slurped ice cream, created a neighborhood all-girl rock'n roll band, and played made-up games with other kids in the neighborhood until well past dark each night.
When summer ended, the other children in our neighborhood returned to school, keeping schedules similar to those of working adults. Our girls began spending a few more hours on homeschooling each day, but their lives aren't much different than they were during the summer. They continue to build forts (including indoor ones, when the weather is bad), participate in community projects that interest them, and play made-up games with the kids in our homeschooling support group each week.
As homeschooling families, we can choose to utilize any of the modern conveniences that work for us, but homeschooling also gives us the time and flexibility to rekindle a family lifestyle from America's past. And by doing so, we give our children something very rare today an old-fashioned childhood.
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